Norway's High Arctic Policy

This chapter presents the three layers of Norwegian High Arctic policies: the legacy from the Cold War: security, jurisdiction and fisheries management; the legacy from the 1990s: institutional collaboration with Russia; and the period after the turn of the millennium: the diversification of High North policies to include domestic and circumpolar politics. Collaboration with Russia on a wide range of arenas still dominates budget allocations in Norway’s High North politics. Furthermore, major jurisdictional achievements have been made in the Barents Sea in recent years: the settlement of the outer limits of the Norwegian continental shelf in 2009, and the delimitation line with Russia in 2010. This is seen as paving the way for further offshore petroleum development in the near future. Norwegian High Arctic policy is indeed still primarily focused on the ‘lower’ Arctic of the near abroad.